The Texans left tackle added a handful more miscues to the pile against Denver

Tunsil is NFL's most penalized player after loss to Broncos

​Texans left tackle Laremy Tunsil
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Texans left tackle Laremy Tunsil

The Texans had a terrible day but it was especially rough for left tackle Laremy Tunsil.

He started out slow picking up some of the pressure against quarterback Deshaun Watson. That hasn't been constant through the season for the blind side protector. The penalties have been though.

NFLPenalties.com had Tunsil at 13 total penalties with 12 accepted against him on the season. He had nine false starts before the start of the game against the Broncos.

He would add three more false starts to the equation against Denver bringing his accepted penalties to 15 making him the most penalized player in football. His false starts alone would rank him tied for third.

The Texans would punt, settle for a field goal, and end the half on the drives where Tunsil was penalized.

Texans head coach Bill O'Brien said it had to be fixed.

"Laremy (Tunsil) has played very well, but he's had a lot of penalties. He'd be the first to tell you that," he said. "We've gotta continue to try to fix it. We've got to continue to try to help him. Nobody feels worse about that than him."

Last season for the Dolphins, Tunsil was penalized just 10 times. In 2018, the Texans also had the most penalized offensive lineman as Julién Davenport led all offensive linemen with 16 penalties. Tunsil's current number of penalties is 16.

This would seem to be not only a Tunsil problem but also a Texans offense problem. They regularly have a player in or near the top ten in offensive line penalties under Bill O'Brien. It would make sense for early season struggles, but this late in the season there shouldn't be issues like this creeping up for a veteran player.

Tunsil explained after the game he felt he was singled out by officials.

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Fred VanVleet scored 20 points in the loss. Photo by Carmen Mandato/Getty Images.

Cade Cunningham had 32 points, nine rebounds and seven assists to lead the Detroit Pistons to a 107-96 win over the Houston Rockets on Monday.

Cunningham was 12 of 22 from the field. He scored 19 points in the third quarter as the Pistons built a 90-80 lead after three.

Jalen Duren had 16 points and 14 rebounds, Malik Beasley added 17 points off the bench, and Ausar Thompson had 11 points and nine rebounds for the Pistons, who shot 48% and were 10 of 27 on 3-pointers.

Fred VanVleet scored 20 points, and Jalen Green scored 19 points. Amen Thompson, who missed the game at Portland on Saturday with left calf soreness, added 17 points for Houston, which shot 39% and struggled from 3, connecting on 11 of 39.

Takeaways

Detroit: The Pistons committed 23 turnovers but were able to overcome it by forcing the Rockets into 17 turnovers and converting it into 19 points.

Houston: The Rockets got balanced scoring with five players in double figures, including Alperen Sengun, who had 11 points and eight rebounds, and Cam Whitmore, who had 10 points off the bench, but they couldn’t overcome poor shooting.

Key moment

After Houston cut Detroit’s lead to 90-85 three minutes into the fourth quarter, Marcus Sasser hit a jumper and three-pointer to spark an 11-2 run as Detroit pulled away.

Key stat

Detroit had a 52-39 advantage in rebounding and a 50-40 edge in points in the paint.

Up next

Houston hosts Cleveland on Wednesday, and Detroit plays at Atlanta the same day.

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